A helicopter visit here from Essex to look at Podocarpus. The helicopter took ‘landing in front of the castle’ rather too literally. On departure the helicopter veered into the Magnolia delavayi below the lawn. The nose of the helicopter was in the magnolias and the landing gear caught up briefly in the fence by the cattle trough. Fortunately the rotovator was just above the top of the wall and they just turned and escaped. Lizzie, on the lawn, ran for cover rather than waving them off. I was at the Green Gate but rushed home to call the emergency services. By the time I got to the side door they were flying away. A very near miss which send the adrenalin flowing. Hopefully their arrival at Burncoose (pilot and 3 passengers) was less fraught.

Podocarpus spinulosus below Tin Garden.

An early single flower on Camellia yunnanensis.

Schefflera pauciflora (WWJ 11999) with ripening fruit.

2025 – CHW

Flowers on Coprosma grandifloria.

Nyssa leptophylla starting its autumn colour.

Unexpected seed on a young Acer Forrestii.

Autumn colour on Crataegus calpodendron.

Cladrastis sinensis has also shed its leaves early but no autumn colour here.

Sorbus japonica (BSUJ 11048) covered in berries yet again but, on inspection, it is a false show as the berries are all stunted and seedless.

Callicarpa shirasawana with berry and leaf colour.

Mallotus japonica (male) starting to drop its leaves.

Lithocarpus corneus with attractive coloured secondary growth.

2024 – CHW
The Isla Rose Plantation is now 7 years old and Jaimie’s team have been uplifting lower branches on young trees and removing wire netting surrounds from those larger plants which no longer need protection. Also clearing out the weed growth from inside the remaining smaller plants which do still have wire netting surrounds. We will spray around everything again in the spring.

A brand new wooden sluice gate has just been installed by Mark Pheasey at the lower end of the lake.

I have been inspecting the Camellia japonica ‘Sode-Gashuki’ (‘Gauntlettii’) beside the front door daily to see the first flower. Jaimie has however found early flowers on what he has called Camellia japonica ‘Nobilissima’. I am not at all sure if there is actually that much difference between the two but would concur that these are indeed C. ‘Nobilissima’. Very early indeed again this year!

Vaccinium corymbosum in the Isla Rose Plantation is now at its absolute best.

2023 – CHW
A fine show of secondary flowers on the RHS Plant of the Decade – Viburnum plicatum ‘Kilimanjaro Sunrise’.

Cercidiphyllum japonicum just turning. This was a 1991 replacement for the Record Tree destroyed in the 1990 hurricane in the same spot.

Hoheria sexstylosa ‘Crataegifolia’ with ripe and falling seeds.

× Gordlinia grandiflora with buds opening.

Zanthoxylum armatum (NJM 1108) has slightly fallen over perhaps due to the weight of its many peppers. The spines remain as spiteful as ever.

First few flowers out on Camellia sasanqua ‘Hugh Evans’ – a month early above Rogers Quarry.

Plenty of flowers for next spring on Lindera megaphylla.

Last week Edward Bolitho said his Camellia sasanqua ‘Narumigata’ was out at Trengwainton a month early. I checked ours in Rogers Quarry and it is just out as well.

The second and later flowering Schefflera delavayi is now full out in Donkey Shoe.

A little autumn colour on Quercus robur ‘Fastigiata’.

A good crop of early flower on Camellia costei.

2022 – CHW
A few more Malus awaiting planting in the old Kitchen Garden have spectacular fruits.Malus ‘Neville Copeman’

Malus ‘Indian Magic’

Malus ‘Halloween’

Malus ‘Royal Beauty’

Malus ‘Golden Hornet’ – the heaviest fruiter of all at a young age

Malus ‘Rosehip’

Here is the accumulating pile of Malus with one more delivery from overseas to come.

Secondary new growth on Persea thunbergii.

Tom Hudson gave us two of these plants (TH4465) which he said were from a very primitive evolutionary past. He then said he had given us the wrong name. I had not seen it flowering but it looks like a Rhus in flower.

Berries now coloured up on Zanthoxylum armatum (NJM 11.080)

Good colour on a 12 year old Acer japonicum.

Athrotaxus selaginoides growing away well.